Some types of fuel cell can include an anode, a cathode, and a porous membrane located between the anode and the cathode. The membrane is configured to permit a flow of select ionic species from the cathode to the anode. In response to this movement of ions across the membrane, electrons flow from the anode to the cathode.
A fuel cell operates by reacting hydrogen at the anode and oxygen at the cathode. Oxygen can be sourced from atmospheric air and pure hydrogen is usually supplied to the anode. The reactions occurring at the cathode and anode may generate considerable heat. To dissipate this heat, various cooling systems have been developed. One type of cooling system uses cathode water injection (CWI), where cooling water is supplied to the cathode of a fuel cell and allowed to mix with one or more gases supplied to the cathode.
In addition to maintaining the fuel cell within a limited range of operating temperatures, a cooling system should also operate without the need to add or remove water from the cooling system. A “water neutral” cooling system can conserve water or save operator time spent adding or removing water.
Some traditional cooling systems are not able to efficiently provide sufficient cooling and achieve a suitable water balance under all operating conditions because a single heat exchanger is typically used to both condense and cool water. Combining condensing and cooling functions into a single device is problematic because of the differing requirements needed to maintain adequate water balance and cooling. For example, to remove excess water from the cooling system, a heat exchanger's fan speed is usually reduced to create a hotter exhaust gas that can transport more water out of the cooling system. But reducing fan speed increases water temperature, which may result in a fuel cell temperature that is too high. As such, it is often difficult to remove water and prevent fuel cell overheating using traditional cooling systems.
The present disclosure is directed to overcoming one or more of the problems or disadvantages of the prior art cooling systems.